The 4th stop on the 2014 IFSC Bouldering World Cup circuit took place this weekend in Innsbruck, Austria with Shauna Coxsey winning her 2nd consecutive gold medal and Kilian Fischhuber taking gold in front of a huge crowd.

For the women, Shauna Coxsey started strong being the only woman to climb the first problem, and she looked, at least initially, like she could not be beat. The final result was in play until the last moments though as Anna Stöhr could have won with a top of the very difficult last problem. Stöhr was not able to pull it off, however, and Coxsey took home a very well deserved second consecutive gold medal.

The men’s competition was a tight battle throughout on a set of problems that were completed by the top three competitors. It was Adam Ondra, competing in his first bouldering World Cup in some years, looking unassailable with quick flashes of the first two problems and quick sends of all four boulders. Veteran competitor Kilian Fischhuber was able to keep pace though as Ondra stumbled ever so slightly on the last two problems, opening the door for Fischhuber to flash the final problem to secure the victory on account of taking fewer attempts to finish all four problems.

The World Cup circuit takes a bit of a break now, returning in two weeks in Hamilton, Canada.

The night was not without some controversy though as Ondra was called off by officials on his first attempt on the final problem due to what was deemed an incorrect starting position for him. After a moment of frustration he would pull on and easily do the problem. My understanding of the scoring is that he would have won had he flashed this problem based on having fewer attempts to his four bonuses than Fischhuber1.

My understanding of the rule in question is that it has to do with a rule adjustment implemented this year by the IFSC, at the request of the athletes, which requires the competitors to establish all four of their limbs on designated holds on the wall before commencing with their attempt. Ondra apparently did not set his 2nd foot before moving on, which is why he was apparently called off. A similar thing happened to Shauna Coxsey on her flash attempt on the third women’s problem, although in that case she wasn’t called off until she was half way up the problem which was quite off-putting for her.

To illustrate the point, here you can clearly see that Coxsey does not set her 2nd foot on a marked hold before starting

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oarx-jJMH8M&start=5024&w=600]

And here is Ondra’s start on Men’s 4 which is more difficult to make out

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oarx-jJMH8M&start=7140&w=600]

Here are a couple of other highlights from the finals broadcast:

Rustam Gelmanov’s incredible effort on the 2nd men’s problem

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oarx-jJMH8M&start=2640&w=600]

Adam Ondra walking up men’s #2

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oarx-jJMH8M&start=3607&w=600]

Kilian Fischhuber securing victory with a flash of the final problem using some exciting beta

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oarx-jJMH8M&start=7595&w=600]

Shauna Coxsey sending the third women’s problem

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oarx-jJMH8M&start=5191&w=600]

Update – 5/19

In a comment on 8a.nu, Adam Ondra had this to say about what happened:

I grabbed the starting hold, put my left foot on starting foothold, kicked with my right foot into an area where I expected to hit the foothold. I felt the impact, I thought that must have been the foothold and went for another move straight away. But I was warned by the judges that the start was not valid, as I didn’t touch the foothold according to them. Even though it seemed to me that I did touch it, as it could have seemed from the livestream as well, I talked with more witnesses who could see very well that I did NOT touch it. No injustice happened to me, I just made stupid mistake and that’s it.

During the broadcast the announcers said that the ruling had no impact on the results, but I don’t that was correct ↩

That call off made ondra lose. He had 100% victory without that nonsense, it sure looked like his foot was on. I don’t know who these people are commentating but they seemed unable to understand such simple rules or repeat correct scores. They should get some people who know what there talking about in there instead of john everyman trying to explain something he doesn’t do.

Actually, Ondra could still have lost on count-back to the semifinals even if he had flashed the final problem. He did not have 100% victory “without that nonsense”. It was hard to tell if he actually touched the start hold with his right foot, but in terms of results in the competition, it did not matter.

With regards to the qualifications of the commentators: Daniel Finn has been commentating at the IFSC events for at least a few years and obviously knows a lot about the field of athletes and the recent history of world cup competitions. Jon Partridge is a member of the Great Britain Climbing team and has competed in a number of events. I think they did a good job and were very entertaining.

narc –
I really like how you formatted this post. 5 or 6 quick highlights with captions was a great way to get a taste of the event without watching the whole thing. It enhanced your summary (which I like anyways) quite a bit! Thanks.

Forget the commentary, it’s absolutely ridiculous that the winners of world cup competitions are being decided by setting-related technicalities in consecutive events. This type of setting issue should not be acceptable at this level of competition.

Its just funny to see how people listen to the commentators and then regurgitate it to me, mr england, I’m just saying that it did matter. It was the single deciding factor between who won and who lost.

Nice final with impressive performances from many climbers. Shauna very good, nice to see Rustam back in shape and Kilian looked better than in a long time. Good to see Adam has conserved his comp skills, i was starting to wonder when he just barely qualified for the semis. In the end it seems like he gave away the gold, though, he had it in a box. All the problems seemed to suit Adam very well, in hindsight the footslips on the slab seemed just as unnecessary as the incorrect start. Maybe because he was rusty or maybe its just those small things that always will happen in bouldering comps. (Lots of factors you can not control, and mistakes can have a huge impact.)

That’s the second time this has happened this season where first/second were decided by incorrect start – happened to Coxey earlier this season and delayed her from winning her first ever gold medal until the other week.

Rules are rules. They are the necessary framework for any competition to exist. I agree, it’s frustrating to watch top athletes make silly mistakes at this level. But I’m also the guy sitting on the couch drinking a beer.
Complaining about the rules, let’s talk about ways we can make them better. Give you all think that all points all starts was a good change? If start seem to be such an issue, maybe we can dedicate a camera to record each start. That way we’ll limit some of the controversy of judges.
What do y’all think?

What if the starting position is awkward enough that putting both feet on a hold just doesn’t make sense? There are plenty of routes where, for example, one foot starts smearing on the wall or one foot is flagged. Do they just not set routes like this anymore?

I’m fine with rules as long as they are consistently enforced. Last week on Men’s Final #1 in Grindewald, Jan Hojer clearly wasn’t matching all 4 points on the starting volume and got away with it. Fortunately it didn’t make a difference since he won without topping that problem. In Azerbaijan, it’s still not clear to me as to who told the judges to call Shauna off on “dab gate.” If it was members from another team or a random spectator, this should never be allowed.
The Innsbruck event was awesome, probably the best one I’ve watched this year. The camera work was much improved from the first couple of events. The crowd and the venue really added to the overall vibe. Few minor issues… I was a little annoyed by why Daniel and Jon kept on saying that Rustam hadn’t topped all the finals problems when he had. I think the commentators need to be doing a better job of keeping track of the standings and explaining the possible outcomes, though they just couldn’t seem to figure it out at times. They should’ve had Sean join them again to keep them straight. Lastly, I’m a big fan of Shauna, but I think they really need to back off their clear bias to wanting Shauna to win.

I like the WCs and have been following it and to be fair I think the commentary and the reports of the scoring has improved a lot. But I agree there is lots of room for improvements. Scoring is quite vital in competitions.
its not an easy job to commentate live, and IFSCs slow updating of scores doesn´t make it easier.
One easy thing to do could be to let the judges communicate with the audience like in many other sports. In many sports the referees help the audience to understand what is happening. For example, judges could for example easily just show what attempt the climbers are starting. Today the audience have to count themselves, (and the commentators) and that is not easy as there are always more than one climber at the time.

Some thoughts on IFSC’s commentators:
Daniel is not good at his job. It does not matter how much experience he has because the quality of analysis he provides is poor. The inaccurate scoretracking, both in terms of screen overlays and spoken commentary, is a problem that should have already been solved.
You might point out that climbing is a young sport, and that the broadcasting as a whole will get better with time. True, but not an excuse for most aspects of IFSC broadcasts. Just watch any video of a major eSports competition (which is also quite young). You’ll hear commentators who are as knowledgeable about the game as the players are, who are hilarious, and who can provide analysis that is both nuanced enough for experienced viewers and still accessible enough to not alienate newcomers. You’ll also see scoretracking overlays which are updated quickly and accurately. Why can’t we have that?